over for the fortunate dead. The plundering of strangers present, it
may be remembered, also took place among the Indians of the Carolinas.
As already mentioned on a preceding page, the cruel manner in which
the widow is treated seems to be a modification of the Hindoo suttee,
but if the account be true, it would appear that death might be
preferable to such torments.

It is interesting to note that in Corsica, as late as 1743, if a
husband died women threw themselves upon the widow and beat her
severely. Bruhier quaintly remarks that this custom obliged women to
take good care of their husbands.

George Gibbs, in Schoolcraft, [Footnote: Hist. Indian Tribes of the
United States, 1853, part iii, p. 112.] states that among the Indians
of Clear Lake, California, "the body is consumed upon a scaffold built
over a hole, into which the ashes are thrown and covered"

According to Stephen Powers, [Footnote: Contrib. to N. A. Ethnol.,
1877, vol. iii, p. 169.] cremation was common among the Se-nel of
California. He thus relates it--

"The dead are mostly burned. Mr. Willard described to me a scene of
incremation that be once witnessed which was frightful for its
exhibitions of fanatic frenzy and infatuation. The corpse was that of
a wealthy chieftain, and as he lay upon the funeral pyre they placed
in his mouth two gold twenties, and other smaller coins in his ears
and hands, on his breast, etc., besides all his finery, his feather
mantles, plumes, clothing, shell money, his fancy bows, painted
arrows, etc. When the torch was applied they set up a mournful
ululation, chanting and dancing about him, gradually working